Word of the day

Pokerish – something that elicits a vague fear, dread, or awe; eerie; uncanny; unsafe, dangerous; uneasy; (of a person) affected with a mysterious dread.

Rural round-up

Fonterra increases forecast earnings per share range:

Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited is increasing its forecast earnings per share range for the current financial year to 45-55 cents. With a forecast Farmgate Milk Price of $4.60 this lifts the total available for payout to $5.05-5.15 per kgMS and would currently equate to a total forecast cash payout of $4.95-5.00 per kgMS after retentions.

Fonterra is also increasing the rate at which farmers are paid the Co-operative Support of 50 cents per kgMS, with the total amount paid up to December going from 18 cents to 25 cents.

Chairman John Wilson said performance in the period 1 August – 31 October 2015 built on the strong second half of the 2015 financial year. . . 

95pct of rats killed by 1080 drops – Dave Williams:

New Zealand’s biggest pest poisoning programme killed 95 percent of the rats it went after and more evidence shows forests are better off after 1080 drops, scientists say.

The New Zealand Ecological Society 2015 Conference is being held at the University of Canterbury this week and one focus is on the use and effects of 1080, or sodium fluoroacetate.

The toxin has been widely used for pest control in New Zealand since the 1950s – possums are a target because they spread tuberculosis – but critics say it kills more than just pests. . . 

Kiwi inventions set to revolutionise horticulture industry 5:

Two giant hot-air blowers are being trialled in South Island vineyards and cherry orchards to fight off severe spring frosts. 

The Kiwi invention could protect crops and transform the horticulture industry.

The blowers stand five metres tall and blows out warm air like a giant blow drier.

Known as the Heat Ranger, it’s one of two machines being put to the test in Otago and North Canterbury. . . 

Speech to DRC Food Security and Food Safety Strategy Summit – Nathan Guy:

Distinguished guests,

It is my pleasure to speak here today. I want to thank the Development Research Centre (DRC) for inviting me here to participate at this Summit.

Today I will discuss the role that New Zealand, as a regional partner in the Asia Pacific, can play with China in meeting the challenges of food security and food safety.

As China liberalises its economy and raises living standards, its demand for raw materials and food for its 1.3 billion population will have a significant impact on global agricultural markets.

All agricultural producing nations have an interest in a strong China. As China looks to move away from a solely manufacturing-driven economy to one propelled jointly by agriculture, manufacturing and services, New Zealand can be a practical partner to support this change.

Background on NZ

We have a lot to offer because we are an agricultural and food producing nation.

The wider primary sector – including agriculture, horticulture, forestry and fisheries make up around three quarters of our merchandise exports. . .

AsureQuality first in World to Issue an Accredited FSSC22000-Q Certificate:

Food safety assurance provider AsureQuality is the first Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) in the world to be both accredited to the new FSSC22000-Q scheme, and to issue accredited FSSC22000-Q certification to a customer.

First published in February this year by the Foundation for Food Safety Certification, FSSC22000-Q gives organisations the option to have their Food Safety and Quality Management Systems certified under one certification, by way of one integrated audit rather than individual FSSC22000 and ISO9001 audits.

The first dairy site in the world to gain FSSC22000-Q certification is Fonterra’s Te Awamutu site, with other Fonterra sites awaiting certification. . . 

World first for Fonterra:

Fonterra Te Awamutu has become the first site in the world to be awarded the newly created Food Safety System Certification 22000 – Quality, an internationally recognised food safety accreditation.

Where previously food safety and food quality have been audited and assessed separately, the new certification gives companies the option of combining their food safety and quality management systems into one certification. This provides customers with the assurances of international best-practice in both food safety and quality.

Fonterra Director New Zealand Manufacturing Mark Leslie said this highlights the Co-operative’s commitment to producing the highest quality dairy nutrition and world-leading service. . . 

People, like us

September 11th in the USA.

July 7th in the UK.

And now November 13th, a really black Friday, in France.

If we think back we might remember a few more places where terror struck, if not the dates – Bali, the Boston marathon, Paris earlier this year . . .

But how many other places can we name in the very recent past – the last few months, weeks, even days, where people were killed or injured by acts of terrorism?

How much attention do we pay to news bulletins which tell us of other people in other places for whom terror isn’t a rare and aberrant occurrence but a constant companion?

Indian poet Karuna Ezara Parikh wrote in response to the Paris attacks:

It's time to pray for humanity. It's time to pray for the world. It's time to make all places beloved. pic.twitter.com/ZjAHPLGZ6T

— Karuna Ezara Parikh (@karunaparikh) November 14, 2015

Stalin said: The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.

Big numbers, particularly in places with which we’re not familiar and where sudden and violent death is not abnormal, are hard to grasp, particularly if we know and understand little of the geography, history and politics.

The events of 9/11 (or 11/9 for everyone outside the USA), 7/7 and 13/11 got our attention because terror struck in places with which many of us are familiar where the culture is similar, where we might have visited and/or know people, and the people are like us.

They also had the potential to affect us directly because we knew some of those affected, and through increased security measures and the consequent, though not large, loss of freedom.

These many other deaths and on-going terror are far less likely to affect us directly.

But do they not have an impact in the way that the tragedies in New York, London and Paris do because differences in language and culture emphasise what we don’t share and blind us to what we do – our common humanity?

Just because they aren’t people like us, we should never forget that they are people, like us.

 

Quote of the day

We need a corrective on who is a genuine artist. I’m an opportunist. I have no talent. That’s true of 99 per cent of people in the British media. Ricky Gervais or Graham and Arthur who wrote Father Ted or Armando Iannucci are God-like as they have talent. Everyone else is a drone. ―Griff Rhys Jones who turns 62 today.

November 16 in history

42 BC – Tiberius, Roman emperor, was born (d. 37).

1272 – While travelling during the Ninth Crusade, Prince Edward became King of England upon Henry III’s death, but he will not return to England for nearly two years to assume the throne.

1491 – An auto de fé, held in the Brasero de la Dehesa outside Ávila, concluded the case of the Holy Child of La Guardia with the public execution of several Jewish and converso suspects.

1532 – Francisco Pizarro and his men captured Inca Emperor Atahualpa.

1643 – Jean Chardin, French-English jeweler and explorer, was born (d. 1703).

1776 – American Revolution: The United Provinces (Low Countries) recognised the independence of the United States.

1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Schöngrabern – Russian forces under Pyotr Bagration delayed the pursuit by French troops under Murat.

1821 – Missouri trader William Becknell arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico over a route that became known as the Santa Fe Trail.

1840 – New Zealand officially became a separate colony of Britain, severing its link to New South Wales.

1849 – A Russian court sentenced Fyodor Dostoevsky to death for anti-government activities linked to a radical intellectual group; his sentence is later commuted to hard labour.

1852 – The English astronomer John Russell Hind discovered the asteroid22 Kalliope.

1857 – Second relief of Lucknow. Twenty-four Victoria Crosses were awarded, the most in a single day.

1863 – Battle of Campbell’s Station near Knoxville, Tennessee. Confederate troops unsuccessfully attacked Union forces.

1869 – Hamiora Pere was executed for treason.

1885 – Canadian rebel leader of the Métis and “Father of Manitoba”, Louis Riel was executed for treason.

1896 – Joan Lindsay, Australian novelist, was born (d. 1984).

1897 – Choudhry Rahmat Ali, Indian-Pakistani academic, created the name for Pakistan, was born (d. 1951).

1907 – Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory became Oklahoma and was admitted as the 46th U.S. state.

1907 – Cunard Line’s RMS Mauretania, sister ship of RMS Lusitania, set sail on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York City.

1914 – Eddie Chapman, British World War II spy and double agent, akaAgent Zigzag, was born (d. 1997)

1914 – The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opened.

1916 – Harold Baigent, New Zealand actor, was born (d. 1996).

1938 – LSD was first synthesized by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel.

1940 – The Royal Air Force bombed Hamburg.

1940 – The Nazis closed off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world.

1943 – American bombers struck a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway.

1944 – : Operation Queen, the Allied thrust to the Rur, was launched.

1944 – Dueren, Germany was destroyed by Allied bombers.

1945 – Operation Paperclip: The United States Army secretly admitted 88 German scientists and engineers to help in the development of rocket technology.

1945 – UNESCO was founded.

1953 Griff Rhys Jones, Welsh comedian, writer and actor, was born.

1965 – The Soviet Union launched the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet.

1973 – NASA launched Skylab 4 with a crew of three astronauts for an 84-day mission.

1973 – U.S. President Richard Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorisation Act into law.

1979 – The first line of Bucharest Metro (Line M1) was opened from Timpuri Noi to Semanatoarea in Bucharest.

1988 – The Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR declared that Estonia was “sovereign” but stopped short of declaring independence.

1988 – In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in Pakistan elected populist candidate Benazir Bhutto to be Prime Minister.

1989 – A death squad composed of El Salvadoran army troops killed six Jesuit priests and two others at Jose Simeon Canas University.

1989 – UNESCO adopted the Seville Statement on Violence at the twenty-fifth session of its General Conference.

1997 – After nearly 18 years of incarceration, China released Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy dissident, for medical reasons.

2000 – Bill Clinton became the first U.S. President to visit Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War.

2010– Prince William and the Kate Middleton announced their engagement at Clarence House.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia